


start of something new

by ADreamingSongbird



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga), Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Trans Katsuki Yuuri, Trans Okumura Eiji, and yuuri still doesn't know how to interact with fans ever, in which baby trans bi athlete eiji really admired openly out and proud trans bi athlete yuuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 04:11:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19738048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADreamingSongbird/pseuds/ADreamingSongbird
Summary: Yuuri has a quick conversation with a couple of fans. Perhaps there's more there than meets the eye.





	start of something new

“Yura!”

Yuuri hurries over, spotting a blurry but familiar blond mop further down the hallway. What’s he doing by the stands and not even in costume? Yakov would have an aneurysm, if he saw. He doesn’t need to be on the ice soon—it’s a show, not a competition, and Yuri isn’t scheduled until the second half, but all the same, Yuuri can’t help but wonder…?

“What are you doing all the way over here?” he asks, blinking a few times as if it’ll help his terrible eyes focus better. “Yakov will have your hide if…”

Come to think of it, Yuri’s shot up lately, but he’s not _this_ tall, and—

“Huh?”

The _complete stranger_ turns around, and Yuuri nearly shrinks back from the surprising intensity of his eyes. He also nearly melts into the ground from mortification as he realizes what he just did. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I thought—I mistook you for someone else, I’m so sorry!”

The stranger relaxes and shrugs slightly. “S’fine. No harm done.”

He has an American accent, kind of like the ones people had in Detroit. “Midwestern neutral”, one of his classmates called it once, though Yuuri has to admit he’s not really any good at differentiating American accents from each other. Still, it’s surprising to see an American here, at an ice show in Izumo City.

“You’re the skater,” the American says, interrupting his musing. “Katsuki?”

Yuuri nods, trying to pick up the shattered pieces of his dignity. “Yes, that’s me! I, uh, am a skater, yes.”

The American almost laughs.

Yuuri stands a little taller, indignant. The American is as tall as Viktor, so it’s not completely effective, but he can’t help but bristle that he’s apparently a laughing matter. What’s so funny? He’s a world record holder, he’s shattered Viktor Katsuki-Nikiforov’s records, and he’s taken gold at Worlds twice now. He can practically hear Viktor urging him to stand up for himself. He’s not a joke!

“Oh, man,” the American says. “My boyfriend’s gonna be pissed that I met you while he was in the restroom. He has a poster of you. Wait, uh…”

He pats his pockets and comes up with nothing, then sighs. Yuuri relaxes and mentally scolds himself for being so prickly. He wasn’t being laughed at! It’s fine.

“I was gonna ask for an autograph to wave at him, but I don’t have any paper.” The American shrugs. “Oh well. Nice meeting you, Katsuki-san. Have fun with—”

“Ash!” someone calls, and the American’s head whips around. A blurry young man hurries up to them, his features becoming less blurry as he gets closer, and Yuuri squints at him for a moment. He looks vaguely familiar, but…?

“Oh, you came back in time,” the American—Ash?—observes. This must be the boyfriend, because he reaches out and wraps his arm around the other young man’s shoulders. “Look who I ran into, Eiji.”

Eiji. Does he know anyone named Eiji? No. Then why does he feel like he should?

“Um,” Yuuri manages. “Hi. I, uh… well, you probably know who I am. I mean, you have a poster of me, so…”

Eiji turns _red,_ and Yuuri could kick himself. Stupid! What would he have done if Viktor said something like that when they first met?! Idiot, foot-in-mouth, stupid fool that he is, this is why he can never talk to fans, ever.

“You told him about the poster?!” Eiji looks up at Ash, cheeks flushed. “Ash!”

“It’s the only reason I recognized his face!” Ash defends.

“I am feeding you natto tonight,” Eiji mutters. Ash looks comically offended, but Eiji ignores him and looks back to Yuuri. “I—um, Katsuki-san, I have admired you for many years, and I just, ah, I wanted to say thank you, for being true to yourself and… I have never really been much of a figure skater, but I did compete in, um, other things for a while? And it was just very inspiring to see you succeed and be so loved and find happiness as someone, well, um… I am also bisexual, and trans?”

Yuuri gapes for a moment, taken aback. Wow. WOW! “You—”

Eiji presses on, face still flushed but full of determination. “And it just was so wonderful to see someone like me succeed in athletics and make people so proud and find happiness and I am so grateful to you for being such a good role model when I was young!”

Eiji clasps his hands together and bobs into a bow, and Yuuri squawks and flaps his hands at him. “No, no, please, there’s no need—I mean, um—thank you, wow, uh…”

It hits him, then, like a sack of bricks. Competing in other things… _That’s_ why he felt like he recognized him!

“You’re—it’s Okumura, right? Okumura Eiji?”

Eiji blinks, then nods. Ash cocks his head to one side and looks between them. “Yes…? How did you know?”

Yuuri frowns. “How come you weren’t on Team Japan last summer? I remember my coach saying you were one of the best candidates when we talked about the summer games.”

Eiji’s reaction is immediate and _bad_. He flinches, eyes dropping to the floor, and Ash immediately shifts to take his hand and gives Yuuri a fiercely dirty look. Oh no… he fucked up. He took his foot and put it _directly_ into his mouth.

Eiji bites his lip. “I, um… can’t compete anymore. I hurt my ankle, and… uh…”

“Oh,” Yuuri mumbles, cheeks flaming. “Oh no. Oh no, I’m so sorry, that was so insensitive of me, uh…”

Eiji ducks his head, also clearly uncomfortable. “It’s—that’s okay! You didn’t know! It is fine!”

“Eiji,” Ash warns. Yuuri nearly kicks himself. This is why he doesn’t talk to fans!

But Viktor would be disappointed if he ran away from this without making it better, so he takes a deep breath and lifts his chin. “I’m… really sorry, uh… can I make it up to you by taking you both out for dinner after the show?”

Ash looks visibly interested. “Free food?”

Eiji smacks his arm. “You are literally a multimillionaire, you can buy all the food you want—”

“Not the point,” Ash interrupts. “It’s free food and it’s not natto, so it’s better than what you’d give me. I vote yes.”

Eiji smacks him again, then turns to Yuuri and shakes his hand profusely. “Yes, if that’s okay! Thank you so much for the offer!”

“Of course,” Yuuri says, hoping he sounds halfway gracious. “I, uh… have to go, but I’ll see you guys later, right?”

“Yeah!” Eiji beams. “It was very nice to meet you! Good luck on the show!”

“Thanks.” Yuuri offers what’s probably the world’s most awkward thumbs-up and turns to hurry away to tell Viktor they have dinner plans before he can embarrass himself further.

That was weird. And awkward. But one thing’s for sure, he supposes as he walks: tonight definitely got a lot more interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> this was a gift for @sabarcher on twitter!! thank you so much for your patience and your help earlier!! this was so fun to write and i honestly had a lot of trouble keeping it short. i might maybe write... more... in this universe... sometime. hehe!!!
> 
> bonus points to anyone who noticed the song i used for the fic title uwu


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